What were "Waterloo teeth"?

Zbeckabee

Anaesthetics made painless dentistry possible. At the same time the European diet grew a great deal sweeter as the use of sugar became more widespread. As a result, more and more people were having teeth pulled and needed replacements. This gave rise to "Waterloo Teeth", which were real human teeth set into hand-carved chunks of ivory from hippopotamus or walrus jaws. The teeth were obtained from executed criminals, victims of battlefields, from grave-robbers, and were even bought directly from the desperately impoverished. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_era Jun 27 10, 2:13 PM

star_gazer

The name of these early dentures came from the Battle of Waterloo. British soldiers were allowed to strip the mass amount of dead of anything of value - including their teeth. Tooth transplants eventually plummeted in popularity however when it was discovered that syphilis could be transmitted this way. Jun 27 10, 2:37 PM

Zbeckabee

Link for Star's post: http://www.rcpsg.ac.uk/hdrg/2002oct4.htm Jun 27 10, 4:11 PM